Abstract:

Teachers play a key role in moral education because they can "set" the moral compass for their pupils through their thinking and actions. A teacher's moral attitude is reflected in his or her approach to pupils and parents, in the resolution of moral dilemmas and conflicts, in the evaluation of pupils, etc. In this paper we present partial results of applied research related to the moral adjustment of primary school teachers in Slovakia. The theoretical part of the paper is based on the psychological approach of moral judgement of Piaget and Kohlberg, from which we also draw on the results of our research in interpreting the moral adjustment of teachers. We used a questionnaire of our own design which focused on 3 areas. One of them was to ascertain teachers' moral adjustment in questions that were related to their views in evaluating themselves and parents as moral role models for pupils, and also commented on media products and their evaluation of their moral message for children. We also elicited their ratings of their trust in children's moral behavior, as well as their views on compliance with rules. Moral attitudes were monitored using a Likert scale in question 22, comprising 12 statements of different domains. The research respondents were 342 elementary school teachers from Slovakia (N = 342; mean age = 42 years). The results of the statistical analysis indicate a tendency towards heteronomous teacher attitudes and conventional Kohlberg's theory level morality, an orientation towards authority, rigid rules, and the maintenance of social or religious order. Teachers perceive themselves as moral role models (M = 4.56), while they are more critical of parents as role models of moral behavior for children (M = 2.92) and also of contemporary media (M = 2.26). Our findings further suggest an increased distrust of children's moral behavior (M = 2.58). Teachers also expressed agreement with following the rule , "Treat others the way you want others to treat you" (M = 4.56). In the context of the pedagogical approach to teachers' moral attitudes, we express the belief that it is necessary to invest efforts in teacher education in order to develop teachers' own moral competencies and thus change their attitudes towards various moral problems and issues.

Keywords:

Moral settings, teacher, primary school, psychological approach, pedagogical approach.